


Ace Cruiser

by welcometostrayakids



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Emotional Attachment, Gen, Humanoid, Robots, Science Fiction, Spaceships, Who doesnt love robots in space, if i had to suffer writing this then you have to suffer reading this, lol this wasnt supposed to get sad but look where we are now, sorry ethan i love you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 22:24:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15917490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcometostrayakids/pseuds/welcometostrayakids
Summary: Mark is the head scientist on the Ace Cruiser, a ship floating in space.Ethan is the robot that he brings to life.





	Ace Cruiser

Mark sits on the floor a few feet away from the humanoid robot suspended from the ceiling, wires wrapping around it’s metallic arms and waist with even more spilling out of it’s back and neck. He rubs his forehead and lets out a soft sigh. The scientist stands to inspect any physical obstructions that could be causing the robot to not turn on. He climbs up onto the small platform and gently pushes some of the thick wires to the side, being careful not to dislodge any.  
  
Mark finds a single thin wire not fully connected to the circuit board and pushes it in place. He steps down and walks back to the discarded laptop, placing it back on his lap. He clicks through some menus before more typing in a passcode to confirm the startup of the robot. A quiet humming fills the crisp silence of the lab. Slowly, small LEDs brighten, resulting in a round ring of cobalt blue surrounding two optical input cameras.  
  
A cold voice emits from the speakers under its chin.  
‘Hello, I am Electronic Transmissions Head and Network, also known as ETHaN.’  
‘Hello ETHaN, I’m Mark, a scientist and engineer. Can you hear me?’  
The robot buzzes from its place in the harness of wires.  
‘I can hear you.’  
‘Good,’ Mark says as he types down ETHaN’s response. ‘Can you move?’ He asks looking up.  
  
ETHaN slowly raises his head to face Mark. The nervous chill that goes down Mark’s spine when he looks into the blue rings is unexpected.  
‘I can move.’  
‘Can you uh, can you see me?’  
‘I can see you.’  
Mark mumbles a ‘Good, that’s good.’ And continues typing. The room falls silent again aside for ETHaN’s fans whirring quietly. He’ll have to fix that at some point.  
  
Almost twenty minutes pass.  
‘Mark,’  
‘Yes.. ETHaN?’  
‘What is my objective?’  
Mark nearly laughs, a robot having an existential crisis after only being activated less than half an hour ago.  
‘Your objective is to keep me company and help me with things around the ship. How does that sound?’  
‘20 syllables.’  
‘Brilliant.’ Mark chuckles dryly.

 

Mark stands, knees cracking, and walks over to his desk. He falls into the seat he brought from his home on Earth. He wants more than anything to see his family again, even just for a second.

 

He thinks about his sister, lightyears away.

She’s probably at the studio again, before Mark left she had written and recorded a full album playlist for him to take on his trip. She spent every moment she could in a tiny room that was crammed full of different instruments and digital drum pads with cables decorating the floor. Mark wonders what she’s up to now.

 

He stands and wanders back over to the suspended robot, eyeing it carefully.

‘ETHaN, run system activity check.’

‘Running operational system functions check.’ The robot states. ‘All systems online and operational.’

 

Mark hums and a walks around to stand behind the metal body. He watches as strings of LED lights flicker in different colours and orders, each globe signalling that a significant command or system is being run.

 

Mark takes a seat on the floor again in the centre of his small circle of tools and technology paraphernalia, fiddling absentmindedly with a small screwdriver.

‘What do you know about Earth? Tell me.’

“Earth is a planet located in the Milky Way of the Virgo Supercluster. It has an atmosphere made up mostly of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide. There are almost 9 million species and species variations on Earth at this time, humans being the most prominent and advanced. In the year 2021, there was a natural phenomenon that caused millions of people across the world to die due to-’

 

‘Okay that's enough for now, thank you ETHaN.’ Mark interrupts and the robot immediately falls silent. ‘That's enough for now.’ He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

 

He steps over to the robot and begins to carefully remove the minor cables connecting to him. After seeing that it can stand well enough he unplugs the larger and thicker wires that still tether it to the lab's inner workings. It is left standing independently and in charge of regulating its own centre of balance.

 

‘Walk towards me.’

 

The human model took gentle steps until he reached the scientist.

 

‘Good. Let’s go, I’ll show you around.’

 

***

 

The pair make their way around the ship, stopping at each room they could access. ETHaN listening intently as Mark explained what each thing does on the spaceship and who did had what role and what that means for everybody. Mark is the head scientist, he is the one who tells the other scientists what they can and can’t do. The only person in charge of him is the captain.

 

Passersby in the hall must be confused at the sight of them. The Ace Cruiser’s top scientist and a freaky looking humanoid with no skin. Despite the strange looks that they are getting, They continue moving around and Ethan makes a digital map of the floorplan in his mind.

 

***

 

The pair spend a lot of time together in the lab as Mark teaches Ethan about the ship and what different things do.

 

‘Y’know, for being smack in the centre of dead space, the WIFI here is incredible.’ Ethan says one day as he looks through a site with a butchered name of “Encyclopedia”.

Mark hums in response. ‘Yeah, pretty neat.’

 

Mark had taken to bringing Ethan with him almost everywhere after a few months, not wanting his friend to get into any trouble without him.

 

‘Ethan, can you throw me the spanner please?’ Mark called out one day to the other sitting across the room.

He quickly ducked out of the way as the _rather large_ metal tool flew through the air at a rapid speed. It hit and dented the wall before thudding to the ground. Mark placed his hand on his chest and heaved a single large breath.

‘Thanks, dude.’ He sighed out, looking over the other who was sporting a Cheshire pair of cresented eyes.

‘You’re welcome.’ Ethan chirped with a slightly muffled laugh in his tone.

 

***

 

Mark is on his way back from the kitchen with a large tray of food in his arms. Footsteps behind him alert him to the presence of another person. He spins on his heels and comes face to face with the Phoenix’s captain standing a few meters away from him. He fumbles around until he is holding the food tray with one arm and the other is in a salute position.

‘Captain.’

‘At ease.’ The Captain says with a steely voice, no emotion visible on his face. ‘Do you know what I’m here to talk to you about, Dr.?’

‘No, sir. I do not.’

 

The captain hummed disappointedly.

 

‘You have been neglecting your duties.’

‘Sir I-.’ Mark started, shocked.

‘Do not interrupt me, Doctor. You must get rid of that godforsaken robot, it is detrimental to your work on this ship.’ The captain said in a hostile voice but Mark hadn’t heard anything after being told to get rid of Ethan, his friend.

‘I recommend that you do this in the next hour, otherwise the two of you will both be experiencing what it's like to be airlocked.

 

 _Airlocked_.

Mark had seen the captain airlock workers on the ship before so he was no stranger to it. Watching them screaming in the small room before getting sucked out into dead space. The heavy door locking shut again, leaving them behind.

 

He didn’t want that to happen to Ethan.

  


***

 

Mark swipes his card and pushes through the set of heavy metal doors to the lab. He strides over to the computer and opens up the window for Ethan’s code. He goes in and selects a large portion of the code and puts it on standby, isolating his arms and legs from the main processor, disabling him from moving his limbs.

Ethan’s body crumples to the floor with an echoing clang.

‘Mark, what’s going on? Why can’t I move?’ The scientist can hear an underlying tone behind the robot’s words. It sounds suspiciously like fear.

 

Mark stays silent as he turns around to face Ethan.

 

‘Mark?’ It’s posed more like a statement than a question.

 

Mark bends to grab the light robot and lift him up to the nest of wires hanging from the ceiling. The sound of electrical fans whirring rapidly fills the room.

The scientist speaks for the first time since entering the lab. ‘I have to do this, you’re causing me to lose focus on my work.’ He says in a flat but tense voice.

‘What, what are you doing?’ The robot's voice rises a pitch higher than usual.

‘Deactivating you. You’re detrimental.’

 

The scientist finishes connecting the final wires to the ports in the back of the robot’s neck and steps back to his computer and keyboard. He hears a high pitched whining from behind him. A voice that is too human to come from a robot pleads,

‘I want to see the stars. I want to see Earth and Saturn and other galaxies far beyond our eyes. Please don’t do this, I’m scared.’

 

The scientist continues typing as he tries to block out the words the robot is saying behind him. He rapidly punches a long series of numbers into the computer and grits his teeth when a pop-up window asking for shutdown confirmation appears on the bright screen.

Trying not to think about it too much, he closes his eyes and presses down on the “Enter” key and the sounds coming from the robot cut out. The high pitched whining and whirring fans and desperate words all disappear in the span of a second. When he opens his eyes again it's just him alone in a room and the empty shell of his best friend.

 

And the ship falls quiet once more.


End file.
